Ryan Powell admitted assaulting Christian Freudenberg on 28 March near the Weighbridge, being drunk and disorderly and resisting arrest on 15 March and being drunk and disorderly and resisting arrest on 4 October last year.
Powell and his brother were acquitted at an assize trial earlier this year of grave and criminal assaults on the Freudenberg brothers.Although the prosecution moved only for 12 months’ probation and a six-month exclusion order from licensed premises, the Inferior Number of the Royal Court imposed 90 hours of community service and a three-month exclusion order.
After Crown Advocate Sally Sharpe had finished outlining the prosecution’s case, Deputy Bailiff Michael Birt told Powell’s lawyer, Advocate David Cadin, that there was a substantial risk of the court increasing the Crown’s proposed sentence, given the defendant’s record of repeated arrests for being drunk and breaching the peace.Advocate Sharpe told the court that Powell, who was 19 at the time of the attack, had been drinking in town on the night.
Just before 2 am he was walking to the Weighbridge for a taxi when he saw a friend being punched by another man.
Powell intervened and pulled his friend, Billy Steel, away.He took him to the toilet to clean him up, but on the way he saw the men who had attacked his friend.
He punched Tobias Freudenberg twice and his twin brother, Christian, who was on holiday in the Island, once.
A St Helier Centenier, who was working as a taxi-driver that night, restrained Powell until the police arrived.Although Powell initially lied to police, said Advocate Sharpe, in court just two days after the attack he admitted assaulting the brothers.Advocate Cadin, appearing for Powell, referred to the amount of time the case had been hanging over his head.
He added that he had been banned from most licensed premises while on bail and so had effectively already served an exclusion order.The advocate said the defendant was genuinely remorseful for what had happened and that the experience of going to the Royal Court had been a sobering one for him.But the court said Powell had only just escaped a youth detention sentence.
Should he appear before them again, he was warned, he would not escape a custodial penalty.The Deputy Bailiff was sitting with Jurats Georgelin and Allo.
